Chandler Unified School District details dual-language program successes

Ken Sain, East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Ariz.)
·4 min read
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Jan. 7—The internet has made the world more global and increased competition internationally for businesses. That means companies need more employees who speak multiple languages.

As Chandler Unified School District is marking its 10th anniversary of offering dual language immersion programs (DLI) this school year, administration officials recently gave the governing board an update on the program.

"In immersion, our students are starting on at an early age and by the time they graduate high school, they've reached an advanced level of proficiency that allows them to compete in any career or profession they would like to pursue," said Patricia Fernandez, assistant director of curriculum and instruction.

In a 2019 survey of 1,200 U.S. businesses, researchers found that nine out of 10 need at least some employees with language skills other than English. More than half, 56%, said they expected their need for foreign language speakers would increase in the next five years.

CUSD began its first dual language immersion program in 2014 at Tarwater Elementary School, offering Mandarin. Students spend half the day learning in English, and the other half in the Chinese language.

The following year the district expanded the program by making Chandler Traditional Academy Liberty a Spanish DLI school. In recent years officials have expanded the program to the junior high and high school levels as the first students enrolled in the program are nearing graduation.

Now CUSD has DLI programs at eight schools.

Joining Tarwater and Liberty are Bologna, CTA Freedom, Arizona College Prep Middle School and Bogle Junior High. New this year are DLI programs at two high schools, Arizona College Prep and Hamilton.

There is a pathway for students to stay in a DLI school in both languages. Mandarin students can attend Tarwater, Bogle Junior and Hamilton High. The other five schools focus on Spanish.

Arizona offers four special seals that high school graduates can apply for that will be affixed on their diplomas if they demonstrate a mastery of that subject and one of the four is biliteracy.

Last year, 152 seniors in the district received the Seal of Biliteracy. There are 250 applications for the seal this year.

The other three seals students can apply for are in personal finance, civics literacy and arts proficiency.

Other districts offer other languages, including Japanese, French, Portuguese, American Sign Language and German. Spanish and Mandarin Chinese are the two employers say they need most.

A total of 594 CUSD students have earned the seal of biliteracy since the program began in Arizona in 2016. Statewide, 1,658 seals were awarded to the 2022 graduating class.

"Sometimes when we think about foreign languages, we think that the need I only because we want to travel outside the U.S.," Fernandez said. "This study proves that the domestic need ... is where you see most need for employees with language skills."

Over half of the companies looking to hire multi-language employees require at least an advanced level. Some require a superior level. No company hires those who are at a novice level, which is formulaic communication with many errors.

The CUSD program is designed for students to reach the advanced level by the time they are freshmen in high school.

As part of the presentation to the board, several students took turns describing their experiences in the DLI program in both English and either Spanish or Mandarin.

There was no mention of the lawsuit filed by State Superintendent of Public Schools Tom Horne against CUSD and 25 other districts. Horne objects to allowing non-native English speaking students to be part of a DLI program, saying they should focus all their classroom time on learning English.

Horne said CUSD had 43 students in its DLI program who were not proficient in English.

He has argued teaching another language to students who are not proficient in English violates Proposition 203, which made it a requirement that students be taught in English only.

Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes have asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit because the state can't give him the legal relief he seeks.

Horne has threatened to withhold English Language Learner funding if the districts don't make a change. The district received $158,000 of that funding in 2022-23.